The Tour of Normandy concluded on Sunday, with Rapha Condor JLT’s Tom Moses slipping down to a final 18th place on the overall classification, following a windswept stage along the Normandy coastline.

Moses, who led the race for three days following his brilliant solo win on stage one, was caught out along with a number of well placed riders – including the race leader – when the race was blown apart on crosswinds on in the first ten kilometres of the final stage.

Eighteen riders had managed to go clear in the crosswinds, soon pulling out a near three-minute advantage on the bunch. Despite a strong chase from the peloton, which saw the gap reduced to thirty seconds at one stage, the break proved to be stronger in the finale, and the eighteen riders fought out the win one minute ahead of the bunch.

At the end of a strong week for the team, team manager John Herety remained encouraged by the overall performance of his team,

“It was disappointing that Tom missed the split today, and dropped out of the top four on the very last stage, because he and the team all rode very strongly this week. But the fact is that a race isn’t over until the very end, and when you are caught out in a crosswind in a race like Normandy, with so much still at stake for the overall, then it’s going to be hard.”

“Having said that for Tom and the boys, missing that first echelon today was one mistake at the end of a week that they have all excelled in. It was fantastic to come away with a stage and to hold the jersey for a few days. A high overall place would have been the icing on the cake, but it didn’t work out that way. We have a lot of positives to take out of this race, and it is on to the next one, now.”

The team’s next event next major event will be the Mnazi Tour in South Africa, which starts next Sunday.